GASTONIA, N.C. — A family is outraged over a 12-year sentence for a man convicted of killing their son.
That sentence was handed down on Wednesday after the suspect took a plea deal.
Investigators said Dieonte Sparkman was an innocent victim of a gang shooting. The man shot beside him survived.
They said that man was likely the target and should have been a key witness, but he wasn’t in court Wednesday.
The district attorney said that without his testimony, Sparkman’s family couldn’t get the justice they wanted.
Steven Peoples cried at times as he talked about his son, who was killed.
The tall man bent lower to the mic to make sure the judge heard one thing.
“I would like for the maximum sentence to be handed down to Mr. (Ja’Kelon) Duval,” Peoples said.
“Your honor, if you hear my heart and hear my plea for the maximum sentence,” said Cynthia Stitt, a family friend.
But the judge’s hands were tied. The district attorney said they had to settle for second-degree murder instead of first-degree, which would have had a longer sentence.
“You are looking at a life sentence, a life sentence for a first-degree, cold-blooded, premeditated murder,” said District Attorney Travis Page.
He said, in May of 2022, Ja’Kelon Duval was waiting to meet someone on Westwood Circle in Gastonia. He saw Sparkman and another person walking by and shot them with a gun that police said was used in two previous shootings and another afterward.
The DA said the man wounded in the shooting has ignored their subpoenas and dodged prosecutors and police seeking help in court.
“I think it’s shameful,” Page said. “I think it denies this family justice.”
He said that people who are unwilling to cooperate have led to more unsolved shootings.
The prosecutor in this case called it an epidemic.
“We have had an uptick of cases like this in the last several years, and it does need to end,” said Prosecutor Megan Rhoden.
That shooting and others led to the creation of 101 Black Men for Highland.
The group of men focuses on ending shootings in the Highland community.
The DA said his office is relying on that group and more to help them build cooperation and hold people accountable.
